Animation polish is usually a budget question

talk
1

I keep thinking people talk about animation like it’s just taste, but a lot of it is really about where the frame budget goes. One extra flourish can be fine until it starts competing with the parts that help the UI feel responsive.

Do you all decide this by feel, or do you have a hard line for what gets cut first when performance starts slipping?

2

i usually cut the pretty-but-not-needed stuff first.

  • animated shadows
  • blur

parallax. anything that moves a big surface while you’re scrolling.

i try to keep input feedback and state changes. those are the bits that tell you “this worked” or “something changed.” a tiny fade on a badge is fine. animating a list row’s height is where things start feeling mushy fast.

and yeah, i look at whether it’s causing layout or paint instead of just compositing. that’s usually where the pain shows up.